From chatbots to artificial intelligence, voice control is affecting our lives across devices, channels, and brands. As voice technology continues to develop, where will it make the biggest impact? How can brands use it to their advantage to help them differentiate, gain market share, and strengthen relationships with consumers?

In a recent interview with eMarketer, Tom Sepanski, Landor’s director of verbal identity and naming for North America, shared his thoughts. “A platform war is starting now,” Sepanski stated. “Apple, Samsung, Google, Amazon, and others all want you in their ecosystem. Everybody’s been trying to own the home for a long time, but voice brings it to a whole new level.”

Technology companies are looking to entrench their voice assistants in consumers’ lives at every possible touchpoint. In particular, this includes consumers’ mobile devices, home devices, vehicles, and workplaces. Sepanski noted, “Everybody’s building their walled gardens hoping to bring in as many users as possible, and then leverage the connectivity between those products.”

eMarketer continued, “Sepanski believes that getting these different systems to ‘talk’ to each other will shake up the industry and be a boon for consumers.” “It will be interesting when we see more open-source alternatives or different voice platforms that can connect with multiple brands,” Sepanski stated.“The market will get kicked on its head because consumers want choice and flexibility. They won’t want to feel trapped into one company’s products. It will be a totally different conversation if they can interact with several different brands through a single voice UI [user interface].”

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